Patricio Freire won back the Bellator MMA Featherweight Title after submitting Daniel Straus in the main event of Bellator 178.
With the featherweight strap around his waist, the fight now wants to fight Michael Chandler, title on the line or not.
“I don’t care about his belt,” Freire said after the event. “To me, that’s just a piece of tin. All I want is to tear (Chandler’s) head off. Bellator knows that. Four years ago, I told them from 135 to 170, I can fight anyone. I’m ready. Bellator gives the people what they want, and the people want that fight – so let’s do it.”
Freire and Chandler have been rivals for quite some time now -- it was Chandler who knocked out Patricio’s brother Patricky to win the lightweight title last year.
The focus for Patricio is not to win another title, but to break as many records as he can in Bellator MMA.
“I just want to break records,” he said. “I’m very happy – Daniel Straus is a very tough fighter, but I’m tired of fighting him. So I came here to put an end to this (rivalry). I came here to showcase something different, as I said I would – and here we are. I have the belt again. … Daniel Straus is a good fighter, and I think it was more my merit than his mistake. Now I have 10 submissions, so I need to get my knockouts up to 10, as well.”
Despite his success in the featherweight division, the featherweight champion is actually winless in the Bellator MMA Lightweight Division.
